Staff?

Ok, so I have been doing staff for about a day. Got really really into it.

Have gone through

•Beginners part 1
•Beginners part 2
•Beginners Throws
•Finger turns
•Isolation

on the HOP learn section. Clearly I don't have them all perfect, but I am feeling fairly confident and have had no problem flowing between things. Also through doing poi I can turn with everything I learned so far and go behind the back and behind the head and so on. Have also picked up flowers, wallplane, wheelplane and 360, in spin and anti-spin.


I have never done staff before, and rarly hung around with any staff spinners, and know practicly nothing about it. Sooooooooooo; what would you in the know staffers recomend for me to play with next?

Make sure you have your hand wraps packed down. I don't know what style of staff you do, but it's one of the basic points of my staff work. Also, get your finger spins done as well - transitioning into a hand wrap from finger spin/vice versa can be very cool.

I have no idea what style I'm going for either

At the moment I am just playing around and learning and seeing where it takes me.

Will work on the transitions when I get home

Are there any other basic fundamentals I should be looking at?

Again, I can't really say much without knowing your style... I was taught face to face and have just expanded from there, that being said, I should probably go through those videos to work out what is in there and what I should learn.

I know through leg spins, around back spins and throws can be tricky... Try them out. If you're a spinner with your staff like me, and you're going to spin it through your legs, then make sure you do a handroll at the top of your arc from your right hand (roll it over your hand so you have a shorter leading pole so that it doesn't dig a hole in the ground). I might make some videos sometime....

After the basics I started in on the wraps (hand, wrists, neck, shoulder, leg, ankle), not sure if you're working towards contact but wraps are an essential building block. I'd suggest seeing if you like it just as an experiment.

I am trying to be kinda well rounded, I am picking up a contact staff tomorrow (today) and going to start on that. But really, I don't want to be stuck to 2 particular "style".

Yeah, fair enough. I've never liked contact staff, it's just not my thing - which is why I go in for the speed and stuff that spinning staff brings to the table. Plus, it's a self taught/invented technique from the other guy... with my own flare added in.

Learn those moves with the other hand...then backwards.

Done, from doing poi I know it's best to learn everything both hands, both directions, front and behind etc etc.

Got me a new contact staff today so will be looking at the contact section

Been looking at MCP contact tutorial vids with voiceovers, but I think that's a bit too advanced for me

just start with neck wraps, both directions, and hand wraps every way. Then switch out say yer arm for yer wrist.

Feel the flow of the staff

If you're struggling to find local staff people to practise with then I'd recommend MCP's DVD - its got loads of stuff on it from the basic to advanced.

I'm sure you can get it from HoP too

There you go folks thats two plugs in one post! Feel free to send me freebies or discounts

I'd say try learn some basic contact, neck rolls and halo rolls are the best place to start. See how you find them if you enjoy learning contact then carry on learning it or if not then atleast you've got some of the basic contact moves.

I'd say if you're not going to get into contact get comfortable spinning 1 stick and go straight to 2, I find I get really bored watching a single staff spin with no contact in now because there feel like there are only about 6 moves that look any good.

With contact staff you still have various different styles. Ninja Dave uses predominantly horizontal plane moves keep the stick on his shoulders with few vertical plane moves whereas I prefer vertical plane tricks because they are more visible to an audience. You can spin fast or go more slow thai chi style.

If you are anywhere near hampshire I'm in southampton and there are regular sessions at Bournemouth and Ringwood. Just let me know when you plan to head down and I'll come too. I can teach you a load of basic staff.

I agree, doubles or contact (+doubles if yoy like) are where to go.